On a Lionel no. 60 trolley, is the field coil for the forward direction wound inside or outside of the field coil for the backward direction?
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Question. Which end is considered forward?. It would depend on the contact plate which field wire is soldered to which lug.
And then if you switch the connections at the brushes the direction changes too... so there isn't really a "forward" or "reverse" field except for the way it's originally wired at the factory.
that's why there is a E unit in some of the older prewar engines the E unit is a DPDT switch which reverses the field coil in relation to the armature !you could install a DPDT switch and then make it reverse very easily by throwing the switch and they are very cheap. will show you how to wire it if your interested?
Alan
It's not necessarily a matter of which is on top, or even color. It is a right to left or left to right thing. (i.e., it changes on/off timing ).
It is so easily changed that I never bother to look for any consistency to know which color is supposed to be where, or end direction is clkws or Counter-ClkWs, etc. I'm sure the batch with the one exception would come my way anyhow (if it exists). I don't care too much about exactly reproducing a factory condition if it is an equal alternative in opperation and easier.
You have two basic choices on reversing an ac train motor, swap the brushes connections, or swap leads on the field(or use 1 of 2 fields, essentially a L/R swap) (or physically move the field coil to left or right of center, like lever on old plastic motor scouts). Robs swapping of brush leads if you pick wrong is pretty funny, but spot on.... if you don't want to pull it apart that far again.
(or.... or.. or some other "one off" Rob might present, just to make you think a second on there nearly always being another way one might cook a dish)
When you remove the trolley shell, what you have is a no. 50 gang car sans the gandy dancers. For purposes of consistency, I would consider the front of the gang car as the reference point for the "forward" direction of the trolley. Was Lionel consistent in which coil (inner or outer) they wired for each direction? If so, which one did they wire for the forward direction? I ask because I have to look for a broken wire in the coil for the forward direction and I'm wondering if I can expect to find it in the outer coil or if I'm going to have to go all the way to the inner coil.
